Category: British aircraft
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Blackburn Buccaneer – Part Two – The Hollow Man
No, wait – that was Bing Crosby. This Airfix model of the naval strike fighter is nowhere near as empty as he was…but nevertheless there’s a lot of unused space inside. Note that the dear old instruction sheet makes this painfully clear – though I will say that it is entirely adequate for the job.…
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Blackburn Buccaneer – Part One – Not A Straight Line…
Note: This is the post I meant to put up today…but failed to find. I repeated myself re. the Spitfire, so I have taken down the morning’s column and published this one instead. Not a straight line anywhere on this plane, I should think. But that’s not a bad thing – there were few straight…
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Grumman Martlet Mk. IV – Part Five – The Problematical Star
The Martlet is done and I am very pleased with it. The folding wing feature is perfect for my Air World museum theme and this time the paint job looks good. And I am expecting a world of weird questions when people see the insignia on the plane. The official story is this: The invasion…
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Grumman Martlet Mk. IV – Part Four – The Sausages Win
The debate in this column, in the wider modelling world, and in my mind about the best way to paint British camouflage patterns in 1:72 scale has finally been resolved and need not be investigated further until next time I get bored… Recently I free-handed the A/B camo pattern on a Fairey Fulmar in this…
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Grumman Martlet Mk IV – Part Three – A Long Way
It is said to be a long way to Tipperary but it cannot be much further than the distance between the modern Airfix kit and the 50¢ baggie of my childhood. Today’s work on the Grumman Martlet emphasised this to me as I undertook the delicate job of closing the fuselage. It required the subtle…
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Grumman Martlet Mk. IV – Part Two – Well Done Airfix
There is a fine line in scale aircraft modelling…and if you’re not careful you scrape it right off with an Xacto knife… No, there’s a fine line between not enough detail and too much. ie. the French Mach 2 for the former and the Czech Special Hobby for the latter. With the Chinese Hobby Boss…
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Grumman Martlet Mk IV – Part One – The Option For Disaster
And guess who’s going to take it… They often say that you should choose the sin that you’ve never committed before just to keep things interesting. I don’t know about the sin bit, but the chance to build a model in a new way has attracted my eye. A lot of aircraft put onto aircraft…
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Spitfire Mk IX – Part Four – Is This A Decal Or A Tarpaulin?
I spent one morning recently decalling airplanes – a simple but delightful exercise in cut and paste. The surfaces of the planes were a clear smooth gloss and the first two decal sets – from Hobby Boss – were all that you could want. They were not pretentious markings – just stars, numbers, and a…
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Spitfire Mk IX – Part Three – The Grey Ghost
I am currently working with three bottles of undercoat paint – but not because I need to. Any one of the three choices would be fine…except I cannot resist trying new brews as they appear in the hobby shop. I am perfectly satisfied with Tamiya undercoat in the spray can and have used up many…
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Spitfire Mk IX – Part Two – The Patchwork Quilt
I am always in awe of the kit builder who has every seam perfect, every wheel straight, and every panel line scribed out. Awe and horror. Awe, horror, and unreasoning anger… Well, it’s not quite that bad, but I do regard perfection with some suspicion. Fortunately the Matchbox Spitfire Mk IX is a very soothing…
The Little World 